QCOSTARICA – Panasonic announced that it will invest US$10 million dollars in the expansion of its plant in Costa Rica, in order to move a production line from Asia.
The company explained, in a statement, this Tuesday, March 2, that the investment includes the construction of an industrial warehouse of 2,400 square meters (25,800 square feet), as well as the improvement of its current facility and existing warehouses.
The project will generate a total of 25 new direct jobs in the plant and around 40 indirect jobs in its construction phase that will begin this month and expected completed by 2022, with operations beginning in 2023.
The objective of the company, it added, is to serve new markets that are added to the current ones in the Central American and Caribbean region, Mexico, the United States, Canada and South America.
In Costa Rica, the company will add AAA battery manufacturing to produce 55 million units per year and the expansion of the existing AA battery line, which would increase capacity by 200%
“The investment of the parent company in Costa Rica responds to the transfer of one of the company’s operations in Asia and whose main market was the United States.
“Our experience of more than 50 years serving countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, local human resources, social and economic stability, and the facilities that Costa Rica offers in logistics, were the key factors for the corporate to assign us the new production,” said Ronald León, general manager of Panasonic Centroamericana.
In Costa Rica, in addition to the AA batteries, the company also manufactures D batteries, while packing and distributing AAA alkaline and Panasonic car batteries imported from Belgium and Thailand.